Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder-Chapter 1593 - 35 : Shield That Shimmers in the Dark

Chapter 1593: Chapter 35 : Shield That Shimmers in the Dark

*Briella*

I felt my body freeze over in horror as I watched several shadows dive toward my defenseless best friend.

Drius didn’t look scared at all. He held his ground. Even though he was in his wolf form, I could see the fire burning in his light brown eyes.

“No!” I cried out again, wrenching myself away from Kryzen and sprinting the short distance between Drius and me.

He didn’t even see me coming as I tackled him, wrapping my arms around his massive furry neck. I spread my arms out as far as I could, hoping to shield his body with my own.

Drius tensed against me, his eyes wide as he stared at me. He looked ready to push me off of him to defend me, but he must have seen the resignation in my expression because he relaxed and lowered his head to shield me, holding me tightly to him.

I was crying hysterically already, knowing that this was likely going to be the end of us. There were just fractions of a second we had until they were upon us ripping us apart with their dark matter, but all I could think about in that moment was how Drius came back for me after all the pain I put him through.

I wanted to say sorry, but I just continued to cry.

I thought about the woman I wasn’t able to save, who died because I wasn’t fast enough to save her.

I couldn’t let the same thing happen to my best friend. Or at least if it was going to happen, I was going to go down with him.

As these thoughts ran through my mind, I sucked in a breath, realizing that I was still alive. Drius was still alive. I cracked an eye open. His wolf and I stared at each other in shock for a moment, wide-eyed and amazed to still be breathing.

I forced myself to turn my head in the direction of where the shadows had been barreling toward us. My jaw fell open when I realized Kryzen was standing over us, a large dome-shaped shield completely encasing us.

Kryzen’s arms were outstretched, and his fingers splayed wide as he held his hands above his head. His entire posture was stiff. The strain it was having on his body was obvious.

The shadow creatures were pressed up against the shield, snarling and shrieking loudly, their claws fully extended and opening and closing menacingly. I shrunk back against the dozens of red eyes, which all seemed focused on me.

Drius’ wolf and I watched Kryzen wide-eyed for a moment before we slowly made our way over to him. It only took a couple of steps. The dome was large enough to hold us all, but the top was only a couple of inches from Kryzen’s head.

Kryzen didn’t even glance back at us, his eyes focused in front of him. When he finally spoke, it was through his teeth. “I could normally keep this up for a while, but they keep trying to penetrate the shield. It’s taking a lot more energy for me to keep it going. I don’t know how long I can keep it up.”

Panic threatened to seize me at Kryzen’s words. I looked around the shield, desperately trying to search for a way to escape but found none. The shadow creatures were completely surrounding the dome as if they were vultures waiting for their prey to die before they tore us apart into shreds.

Kryzen’s entire body was trembling and stiff with exertion. It would likely only be minutes before his shield dropped. When that happened, who knew how many seconds we would survive a battle of three people against a whole horde of relentless shadow creatures?

Drius shifted back to human and jumped in his torn, discarded pants.

“We’re going to have to fight,” Drius said flatly, his hazel eyes flashing. I hadn’t even realized he had shifted back. He looked around and cursed loudly. “I don’t have my sword.”

We couldn’t even peer through the shield to locate Drius’ sword since the shadows were surrounding it so completely. It wouldn’t have mattered if we could see it anyway since there was no way we were going to be able to get to it.

“There’s too many of them,” I cried in distress.

“We have no choice,” Drius bellowed back, his voice getting lost among the ear-piercing shrieks of the shadow creatures. “I’m not going to just stand back while they kill me. I’m going to go down fighting.”

I hadn’t meant to imply that we surrender, but this was far from the time to correct him. I searched our surroundings again, my heart picking up rhythm as the snarls and glowing red eyes of the monsters reminded me of how hopeless our situation was.

“I can’t hold up the shield for much longer!” Kryzen yelled.

“Brace yourself, Bri!” Drius commanded. He grabbed my arm and pulled me next to him as if he was hoping he could shield me from the bloodbath that was about to occur. “Do you have a weapon?”

I scrambled to push the skirt of my dress to the side so I could grab the Embervalean dagger. I gripped the hilt tightly in my hands. It was small but mighty and had already gotten me out of a couple of binds already.

I doubted that it could fend off nearly a hundred shadow creatures though.

I craned my neck to look above my head. The shadow creatures were trying to claw their way through the shield. I hadn’t noticed at first, but as I focused on just one of them, I realized that each time they touched the shield, they recoiled quickly as if they were being burned. I squinted and saw that their hands were smoking a little when they pulled away.

That gave me an idea.

I held the Embervale dagger up, gripping the hilt tightly. I drew in a breath, shutting my eyes and trying to block everything around me out so I could focus. I felt the energy from Embervale flowing from the dagger into my palms. I returned it full force, feeling the magic within the palms of my hands undulating back into the sharp blade.

I opened my eyes, feeling the energy coursing through my veins. I drew in another shuddering breath and crossed the small space that separated Kryzen and me.

I wasn’t sure if touching him would be wise at the moment. I was sure it was taking nearly all of his concentration to keep the glimmering shield in place. I stood next to him.

“In a moment, I’m going to ask you to lower the shield,” I told him in a low, flat voice, trying not to startle him but wanting to get my point across. “Just for a very brief second and then bring it back up as quickly as you can.”

My attempts to keep him calm were in vain. His head whipped around sharply, his gray eyes wide and full of disbelief. “Have you completely lost your mind?” he yelled at me.

There was no time to explain my plan, not that I was confident it would work anyway. We had no choice but to take a shot in the dark since it appeared that this would be our only one.

I gave him my firmest look. “Trust me. You can’t hold this up for much longer anyway. This could be our only chance.”

Kryzen gritted his teeth together hard, his gray eyes still large with panic. “If I let this down, even for a second, I don’t know if I’ll have the strength to bring it back up.”

“You will,” I promised, knowing very well that I had no idea if I was right or not. I still had to convince him to do it. “We have no choice, Kryzen. We have to try. Trust me.”

Kryzen stared at me for another long second before he nodded. “On three?” His voice shook slightly with uncertainty.

“On three,” I repeated, a bit breathlessly. “One.”

Kryzen’s jaw clenched. “Two.”

“Three!” I yelled and plunged my dagger forward.

Kryzen cried out as he dropped the shield. It flashed for a brief moment before immediately returning, somehow even brighter than the first time he had conjured it.

I hadn’t realized I shut my eyes and forced them open again. My dagger was right where I intended it to be, its powerful glowing blade impaling the shield, about half of it sticking outside our safe dome.

Pained shrieks rang in my ears. Various limbs and pieces of the shadow monsters were stuck in the shield, leaving them trapped within the purple energy. Their essence smoked as it burned against Kryzen’s shield.

This was it.

I squeezed the hilt of the dagger tightly in my hands, crying out as I pushed all the magic I could find within me into my weapon. White hot agony seemed to fill my veins, but I kept pushing and shoving, pouring every ounce of energy I could forward.

A harsh white light flashed in front of my eyes and expanded outward. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly against the blinding brightness. High-pitched squeals rang out loudly. The cries were pained and excruciating as the shadow creatures burned away into nothingness.

The silence that followed was deafening.

I was breathing hard, still clutching the dagger tightly in my hands, my entire body trembling. I was probably going into shock, amazed that my plan had worked. We were alive. The demon shadows were gone.

And General Tian was nowhere to be seen.

I let out one long breath and fell to my knees, lowering my dagger. I no longer had the strength to hold it up for a single second more.

Little black dots were starting to appear at the edges of my vision. I struggled to stay kneeling. My body felt like it weighed several tons.

It took me a moment to realize Drius was in front of me, dressed in a long cloak he must have found somewhere. “Bri, you were amazing!” he yelled, dropping onto his knees in front of me and hugging me fiercely.

The world tilted slightly.

“How did you know that would work?” Kryzen asked in awe, dropping down to his knees to my right.

I managed to laugh weakly, fighting to stay awake. “I didn’t.” I lifted my head and met Drius’ gaze. “Thank you so much for coming back to us. We would all be dead if it wasn’t for you.”

My whole body shuddered again as I thought of what almost happened to us and how close we had just come to dying a horrible, violent death.

Drius brushed some stray strands of hair away from my forehead, tucking it carefully behind my ear. His touch was tender, his eyes dark and serious. “I will always come to rescue you, Bri.”

I nodded once and turned to look up at Kryzen, who was staring back at me with wide, intense gray eyes. I managed to send him a small smile before my entire world went dark.